About us
Our Mission
Operation Red White & Blue's mission is to honor, serve, and unite military service members and veterans, and the community by attending to the social and relational needs of veterans and service members. Because our mission is broadly defined, we can carry it out in a variety of ways. We bring citizens together in our community to honor and serve our veterans and service members.
Background
Operation Red White & Blue was founded in early 2019 by a native of Hood County, Kelli Tomlinson Martin. Kelli's father was a Vietnam veteran (US Army 82nd Airborne), both of her grandfathers were in WW2 (US Army European theater and US Navy, South Pacific theater), and many other of her relatives served or are currently serving. Kelli tried to join the United States Army in 1989 upon graduating from high school to follow in her father's footsteps, but was unable to do so because of a medical condition. Kelli was the former President of large veteran non-profit in Fort Worth before deciding to step down from that organization to form a veteran non-profit in Granbury, Texas in her hometown serving Hood, Johnson, Somervell, Erath and Parker counties.
Board of Directors
Operation Red White & Blue Board of Directors is comprised of three individuals, Dr. Kelli Martin, President, Jennifer Carrig, US Navy veteran, Board Secretary and Director of Volunteer Operations, and Mikel Scott, US Navy (Ret.). Vice President/Treasurer.
Dr. Kelli Martin, Board President/Founder
Dr. Martin has always been a very patriotic person since childhood and had hopes of serving, following in her father and other family members' footsteps. However, due to medical issues she was unable to join the military and pursued her education and a career in criminal justice and academia. She is an accomplished researcher and published author of scholarly articles in the field of criminology and criminal justice and served as the official researcher for Judge Brent Carr 's Veterans Pre-Trial Treatment Court in Tarrant County, TX. Kelli is very passionate about honoring and serving veterans and goes the extra mile to make veterans and military service members feel appreciated, honored and remembered for their service and sacrifice. She has earned the moniker "Pitbull" by some local veterans for her tenacity in carrying out the organization's mission and serving veterans - a moniker she is proud to go by!
Jennifer Carrig, US Navy Seabee - Secretary/Director of Volunteer Operations
Jennifer was born in Frankfurt Germany and immigrated to the United States in 2001 right before 9/11. Little did she know that only five years later she would become part of the greatest brotherhood and sisterhood in the World the United States Navy. This choice was made by her after she realized it was on her to keep her little family afloat.
Jennifer served in the United States Navy Seabees from June 2006 until February of 2013. From her beginnings in Navy Bootcamp at Great Lakes, Illinois where she received the unofficial title “Mom” to her 79 shipmates. In August of 2006 after her graduation, Jennifer joined the ranks of the Seabees in Gulfport, MS where she attended Builder “A” School at NCTC. After that she received her first Combat “SERT” training until she was ready to join one of the greatest Battalions in Seabee history, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 7. Under the Seabee motto “CAN DO” and “Construimus Batuimus (We Built We Fight), Jennifer started on her journey to her first peace time deployment to Okinawa, Japan. Her next deployment to Ramadi, Iraq gave her the understanding of what the Seabee motto was created for. When it was time to go home, the Battalion received the news that they were not in fact going home, but were made ready for a transfer from one combat theater into the next, destination Camp Bastian, near Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Battalion was instructed to built one of the first American forward operating bases (FOB) which later became known as Camp Leatherneck. Her last deployment took her to Romania where she served as Detachment Training Officer and Job Safety Supervisor.
When her tour with the Seabee Battalion came to an end, she opted to reenlist for an additional three years. For her shore duty command, Jennifer was selected to join EODTEU ONE (Explosive Ordnance Disposal Training and Evaluation Unit) in San Diego, California. There, her responsibilities seemed endless. As a single Builder Petty Officer 2nd Class she was responsible for the construction and upkeep of 11 training sites on various bases. Furthermore, she ran the builder shop at the main command center. Jennifer received her honorable discharge in February of 2013 and decided to settle in Granbury, TX.
Mikel Scott, US Navy (Ret.) - Vice President/Treasurer
AE1 Scott entered the Navy November 8, 1998 out of Dallas, TX. He attended boot camp at TRC Great Lakes Illinois. Upon graduation he began training at ATD School at the Naval Aviation School in Great Lakes, IL. His first assignment was at Naval Outlying Field San Nicholas Island from March 1999 to March 2003 where he was advanced to Aviation Electrician 3rd Class. He served as administration clerk and barracks petty officer. AE1 Mikel Scott has numerous assignments throughout his career including Forward Deployments during between 2013 and 2017 to Bahrain and USNS Supply, and then on the USS Eisenhower and USS Truman in 2017 and 2018 .
AE1 Scott was Quality Assurance/ Maintenance Control LPO, HSC-26 between November 2013 and January 2017. He performed Quality Assurance/Maintenance Control leading Petty Officer Supervising eight (8) QARs in monitoring and enforcing NAMP policies and 40 programs for 13 work centers performing maintenance on 19 MH-60S aircraft. Additionally he was responsible for releasing the MH-60S aircraft Safe for flight and leading 13 work centers in scheduled and unscheduled maintenance on 19 MH-60S aircraft. Then, he was Quality Assurance LPO, HSC-11 January 2017- November 2018. Leading 10 QARs and 98 CDQAR/CDIs enforcing NAMP policies for 13 work centers maintaining seven MH-60S aircraft. His resume goes on and on! We are proud to have Mikel Scott on our Board of Directors.
